A New Ground Lease on Life: In Virginia, County-Owned Land Becomes a Site for Student and Senior Housing

Musician Curtis Hunter approaches the world with a smile—even if the world doesn’t always return the gesture. But fate seemed to smile on Hunter last June, at least, when he moved into a new senior housing development built on county-owned land in Fairfax County, Virginia.

A few years before, at 58, Hunter had been assaulted near his old apartment building in Seven Corners, suffering a collapsed lung and broken bones. A difficult stretch followed, including a bout of homelessness and another violent attack. But last year, a Fairfax County caseworker suggested Hunter look into a new affordable housing development for seniors, called Belmont at One University. It’s one of several recent projects that have seen Fairfax County leverage the value of its publicly owned land to spur new affordable housing.

A former handyman and touring musician (he played guitar and harmonica in bands that opened for Los Lobos and Donovan, among other acts), Hunter now lives on disability income and says he’s grateful for his new home.

“I appreciate it so much, it’s a very wonderful thing. I really appreciate that they allow my pet,” he says. Unlike three of his former cats—who would accompany Hunter outside, perched on a carpeted platform he would attach to a backpack or bike rack—his latest cat, Sophie, is timid; adopted at nine and a half, she prefers lounging in the window, gazing at the nearby sports complex and neighbors walking along the bike path.

The field house across the street, where Hunter has taken in the occasional lacrosse or soccer game, is part of George Mason University, a public university with about 40,000 students.

One University is located next door to the college, on a 10.8-acre property owned by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA). The parcel previously held an FCRHA affordable housing complex of 46 townhomes, called Robinson Square. In 2021, those tenants were relocated to temporary housing until the new homes were ready—a step that was not without challenges or misgivings, but which allowed for a fivefold increase in the number of affordable housing units on site.

The property now comprises three new buildings: Robinson, named for the former townhome complex, which holds 120 affordable one- to four-bedroom units for all ages; Belmont, with 120 affordable one- and two-bedroom apartments reserved for seniors aged 62 and older; and Main on University, with over 300 market-rate student apartments.

The three buildings sit on county-owned land leased at a nominal rate for 99 years—the land added an estimated $12 million subsidy to help the projects get built. However, the buildings are privately owned and managed, and thus pay the county hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece in local property taxes.

This kind of arrangement—a ground lease that allows communities to hold onto their land while sharing in the revenue generated by development on that land—is one of several ways  communities are putting public land to use in order to expand affordable housing. And it’s providing new opportunities for tenants of all ages.

Hunter enjoys having college students next door and says some have helped organize social events for the senior residents, from game nights to group walks. “There’s one group, they come over, and they help with getting some of these things together—the art class and the open mic, and they have what’s called ‘Cups and Company,’ where they get people from the two buildings to come down and have tea and cookies together,” he explains. “I appreciate them being there, since I don’t have family and don’t get to see my nieces and nephews.”

This Land Is Your Land

In 2022, Fairfax County doubled its affordable housing target, committing to the addition of 10,000 new affordable units by 2034, with no net loss of existing affordable homes. The original goal of 5,000 affordable homes, set in 2019, was always intended to be “a floor, not a ceiling,” according to the advisory panel that issued the recommendation. While median household incomes are high in Fairfax, at more than $154,000 a year, median home values are more than double the national average, at $760,400, according to US Census data. The county has, in some cases, acquired new land in order to develop transit-oriented affordable housing. But lately, especially after the success of One University, the FCRHA is looking more closely at co-locating new affordable housing with existing public facilities on land it already owns or controls.

“We’re looking at a few public facilities, [including] two libraries,” says Anna Shapiro, deputy director for real estate development and finance at the FCRHA. The libraries’ large parking lots offer the potential to co-locate housing on county-owned sites that are “also really accessible in terms of transportation infrastructure and access to jobs and amenities,” she notes. “That piece is really important for us, because as we’re evaluating these properties, we want to make sure that we’re setting people up for success and not isolating people.”

Positioned on the edge of a college campus, One University is fairly walkable, about a mile from grocery stores and the city center. “I bought a little sit-down scooter that gets me up to the Giant and to the Safeway in Fairfax City,” Hunter says. A network of wide bike paths and sidewalks makes it easy to get around.

The county’s latest co-located affordable housing development, currently nearing completion, is also centrally located—on a pair of underutilized parking lots next to the county’s Government Center offices. Fairfax Crest, as it’s called, will hold 279 affordable units for renters earning 30 to 70 percent of the area median income (AMI). The project is actually a sequel of sorts: The nearby Residences at Government Center were completed almost a decade ago. However, Fairfax Crest includes more amenities, like a public plaza, 15,000 square feet of community space, and a childcare center.

The average two-bedroom apartment in Fairfax rents for more than $2,400 a month, according to Zillow and RentCafe estimates, while income-restricted two-bedroom apartments at Robinson and Belmont currently rent for $1,653 to $2,022 per month. Rents at Fairfax Crest have yet to be announced, but between the income-restricted rents and energy-efficient appliances and construction (including rooftop solar panels) that reduce utility costs, most tenants should not have to spend more than 30 percent of their gross income on housing expenses—relieving them of the “cost-burdened” status nearly half of US renters experience.

Shapiro was able to tour one of the Fairfax Crest buildings as construction was wrapping up. “We got to go up to one of the units, and I have to say, the views from the top floors of what is an affordable housing development are gorgeous,” she says. “The county has been very clear that just because it’s affordable housing, it shouldn’t look different than our other housing—and we do have pretty high expectations for what people deliver in our county.”

Building Support for Building

While the federal government owns plenty of land, much of it—from military bases to national parks and wildlife refuges—is not particularly sensible for residential development. States and municipalities, however, control over 250,000 acres of buildable land in high-demand, urban areas, according to a 2024 analysis by the Lincoln Institute’s Center for Geospatial Solutions. This includes surface parking lots, vacant lots, and shuttered municipal buildings in prime locations near jobs and public transit.

Still, it takes initiative and money—and, often, some political courage and leadership—to convert municipally owned land to affordable housing or other publicly beneficial uses.

Shapiro thinks the success of One University and other recent projects helped build the necessary confidence and support among county officials to pursue the Fairfax Crest project. “Seeing all those results, I think they said, ‘Okay, let’s do this in our front yard. Let’s make this really visible, and show our commitment very clearly to affordable housing,’” Shapiro says.

The County Board of Supervisors has been “critical in actually making this happen,” she adds, championing the housing affordability issue politically. “Not only do we have this goal of 10,000 net new units in the county, we’re also going to put our money where our mouth is and put our land where our mouth is.”

Fairfax Crest consists of two main buildings, each with its own cocktail of financing and tax credits. As with One University, the buildings are owned and operated by private companies, on land leased from the county for a 99-year term. “We are very, very concerned about keeping long-term control of our county,” Shapiro says, especially right next to the government offices. “We understood that the value of the land would really help to subsidize the development of the property.”

Each building combined a 4 percent low-income housing tax credit from Virginia Housing with an additional 9 percent tax credit won through a competitive process, in what Shapiro calls a “twinning” strategy. The FCRHA also issued a pair of bonds to help finance the development, totaling $23.5 million, as well as $25 million in loans from its Blueprint fund. “There are other sources in the deal, too—some other state funding and a grant for the daycare buildout,” Shapiro says. “We try to set up our underwriting criteria to really ensure that developers are going out and getting outside capital as well.”

Fairfax County’s decision to retain ownership of its land through ground leases is preferable to what many municipalities end up doing to spur affordable housing development: selling the lot for a dollar, granting a 20-year tax abatement, and “losing all of the value of the asset forever just to achieve the outcome,” says Robert ‘R.J.’ McGrail, director of the Lincoln Institute’s Accelerating Community Investment program.

Every incentive matters, McGrail notes, and each one “can be the difference between shovels in the ground and cranes in the air or not.” But surrendering future tax revenue risks degrading the public services that the new residents, from across the income spectrum, will rely on. “Losing pieces of that to get a deal done is a choice, one that jurisdictions make every day,” he says. “For me, optimizing the disposition strategy in a way that is least extractive of downstream public revenue makes a land activation housing affordability strategy also a municipal fiscal health strategy.”

As of early February, Fairfax County has delivered 1,373 new affordable units toward its goal, with another 2,470 units in 11 projects either under construction or in the pipeline, including Fairfax Crest, according to FCHRA’s affordable housing dashboard. In addition to the libraries Shapiro mentioned, the FCHRA is evaluating other county-owned sites for affordable housing potential, including a park-and-ride lot and a community center. And as the Town of Franconia prepares to move its government offices to a new campus, the county planning commission in February approved a proposal to build 120 units of new affordable housing on the vacated site, along with a district police station, museum, and expanded public library.

‘It Makes Me Smile Again’

What none of those numbers quite captures is the impact a welcoming, safe, affordable place to live can have on individuals and families—the friendships made, the worries dispelled.

Cheerful and outgoing, Hunter is something of a Belmont ambassador, recruiting residents to the building’s social events and classes, and suggesting new ones. He’d like to see parties held for people’s birthdays, for example. “I have a funny feeling that people might appreciate that,” he says. “People who don’t have family, who don’t have company coming all the time, who don’t get out as often … it’s probably pretty special for them.”

In his first-floor apartment, his instruments at hand, Hunter now plucks out a short melody; his cat, Sophie, makes for a captive if indifferent audience. “She’s my comfort animal, after what I’ve been through, and having pets all my life,” he says. “It was pets and music, those were my calming things.”

As the chords ring out over the jingle of a tambourine, Sophie lazes in the window. “She’s up there at least 10 and a half hours a day, sitting there just staring out that window,” Hunter says. “Right outside my window is the bike trail. So that’s where all the dogs from the neighborhood get walked … Every once in a while, a dog notices her and comes up to see her, and the same with people,” he adds.

“I’m glad I have this window; it’s important for me, too,” Hunter reflects. “I’m an extrovert, and watching people walk by, it makes me smile again to look at people. There are a few people who’ll look in the window to see if Sophie’s there today—that helps my soul.”

Jon Gorey is a staff writer at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Lead image: Part of the One University redevelopment on County-owned land in Fairfax County, Virginia. Credit: Hartman Design Group.